Indian air force joins RAF's Exercise Cobra Warrior for first time
Seventy aircraft from all over the world have gathered for Exercise Cobra Warrior at RAF Waddington – including one nation that has never taken part before.
The three-week international air exercise led by the UK takes place over the North Sea and includes pilots from four other nations –Finland, Belgium, Saudi Arabia and, for the first time in history, India.
Flight Lieutenant Samarth Shukla of the Indian Air Force said: "We have travelled halfway around the world, including stops in Saudi Arabia and Greece, to reach this place.
"Exercise Cobra Warrior is a great opportunity for us to learn and to fly with other nations. It has given us the opportunity to learn from other nations, share our experiences and, all in all, improve us.
"When we get back, we will share our experiences and improve the Indian air force as a whole."
Cobra Warrior is a bi-annual exercise designed to test pilots in high-intensity fighting operations, the largest exercise run by the Royal Air Force.
The participating nations are selected by the Government, but they also involve other countries who are in partnership through Nato, the Joint Expeditionary Force and, in the case of India, the UK-India partnership announced in 2022.
Group Captain Jim Calvert, who is exercise director, said: "What Cobra Warrior provides us is what we call collective training.
"What nations and squadrons will do is they will train their crews to be tactical experts on their individual platforms.
"What an exercise such as Cobra Warrior does is it brings all of those platforms together, both UK and partner-nations."
He added: "It just allows us to train and integrate together, so that we can prove, and we can test, and adjust and enhance our interoperability."
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